Gage & Tollner
This Brooklyn dining room opened in 1892 and closed in 2004. It held a TGI Fridays for part of the gap. New owners reopened it in 2021. A uniformed shucker works the raw bar under the chandeliers.
Why go
The floor-to-ceiling mirrors and the red velvet booths survived, and Willa Moore finds the room more modern than most of its counterparts. Moore reports the steaks as less consistent than the rest. Read that before you plan a night around beef. The wedge salad comes on little gem and the sides run smaller and fussier than a classic chophouse does them.
Sunken Harbor Club is the tiki bar on the floor above, and it takes its own reservations. Moore's rule is to reserve at both, because the weekend wait otherwise runs into hours.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the martini, poured into a small glass with the rest kept on pebble ice alongside and three olives.
- Order: the baked alaska, which is the signature.
- Order: off the raw bar, and let somebody else shuck them.
- Avoid: building the evening around the steak.
What locals & experts say
- Willa Moore, The Infatuation, 25 March 2025, at 8.2: the martinis here are
a peak example of the form.
1 - Bryan Kim, in the same publication's steakhouse guide:
Think of it as the steakhouse for farmers market enthusiasts.
2
Good to know
- In the guide: the MICHELIN Guide carries the room in its New York selection and prints no distinction on the page.
Verdict
should-visit — Moore's own route is the bar with no table at all, and on a first visit I would take it. Save the dining room for a birthday.